Syria strikes - as it happened: UN security team shot at in Douma, says chemical weapons watchdog
Inspectors' access to site still being delayed, reports say
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Your support makes all the difference.A UN security team came under fire in Syria while doing reconnaissance for inspectors to visit sites of a suspected chemical weapons attack, and officials said it was no longer clear when the inspectors would be able to go in.
The inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are in Syria to investigate an April 7 incident in which Western countries and rescue workers say scores of civilians were gassed to death by government forces.
OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü said the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) had decided to carry out reconnaissance at two sites in the town of Douma before the inspectors would visit them.
“On arrival at site one, a large crowd gathered and the advice provided by the UNDSS was that the reconnaissance team should withdraw,” he told a meeting at the watchdog’s headquarters in remarks it later released. “At site two, the team came under small arms fire and an explosive was detonated. The reconnaissance team returned to Damascus.”
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US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis blamed the Syrian government for delays in inspectors reaching the sites and said it has a history of trying to “clean up the evidence before the investigation team gets in.”
“We are very much aware of the delay that the regime imposed on that delegation but we are also very much aware of how they have operated in the past and seal what they have done using chemical weapons,” Mr Mattis said before the start of a meeting with his counterpart from Qatar.
The United States, Britain and France fired missiles at Syrian targets on Saturday in retaliation for the suspected chemical use. They say the arrival of the inspectors is being held up by Syrian authorities who now control the area, and that evidence of the chemical attack may be being destroyed.
Damascus and its ally Moscow deny that any gas attack took place, that they are holding up the inspections or that they have tampered with evidence at the site. Britain’s ambassador to the OPCW Peter Wilson said it was now unclear when the inspectors would be able to reach it.
The rebel group based in Douma announced its surrender hours after the suspected chemical attack, and the last rebels left a week later, hours after the Western retaliation strikes.
The US-led intervention has threatened to escalate confrontation between the West and Bashar al-Assad’s backer Russia, although it has had no impact on the fighting on the ground, in which pro-government forces have pressed on with a campaign to crush the rebellion.
Mr Assad is now in his strongest position since the early months of a seven-year-old civil war that has killed more than 500,000 people and driven more than half of Syrians from their homes.
The OPCW team will seek evidence from soil samples, interviews with witnesses, blood, urine or tissue samples from victims and weapon parts. But, more than a week after the suspected attack, hard evidence might be hard to trace.
An official close to the Syrian government said the UN security team had been met by protesters demonstrating against the US-led strikes.
“It was a message from the people,” said the official. The mission “will continue its work”, the official said.
Douma was the last town to hold out in the besieged eastern Ghouta enclave, the last big rebel bastion near the capital Damascus. Eastern Ghouta was captured by a government advance over the past two months.
Syria’s UN ambassador said on Tuesday the fact-finding mission would begin its work in Douma on Wednesday if the U.N. security team deemed the situation there safe.
The Syrian “White Helmets” rescue organisation, which operates in rebel-held areas, has pinpointed for the OPCW team the places where victims of the suspected attack are buried, its head Raed Saleh said on Wednesday.
Douma hospital workers who stayed in the town after the army recaptured it have said that none of the people injured on the night of the attack were exposed to chemical weapons.
Reuters
Welcome to our live coverage of developments in the Syria crisis, as chemical weapons inspectors prepare to begin work in Douma.
Syria's UN ambassador has said a UN security team visited the Damascus suburb of Douma to decide whether investigators from the international chemical weapons watchdog can visit the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack.
Bashar Ja'afari told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the team arrived in Douma about 3pm Damascus time.
He said if the team decides "the situation is sound," the fact-finding mission from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will start work there on Wednesday.
Earlier, Syrian state TV had said the OPCW inspectors had reached the site.
Mr Ja'afari said Syria's government had done "all that it can do to facilitate the work of this mission" and that it was up to the UN security team and the OPCW to give a green light for the investigators to enter Douma.
He added the OPCW mission had been working in Damascus, including listening to statements from witnesses about the alleged incident.
AP
Here is our full story on yesterday's Commons debate on the use of military action in Syria.
In a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday, Russia clashed again with the US and its Western allies, saying airstrikes on suspected chemical sites in Syria have set back any political negotiations to end the seven-year conflict.
The US, France and Britain insist that recent events are an opportunity to get the political process back on track.
The exchange came during the sixth meeting the Security Council has held on Syria in nine days.
Russia called the council meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation in Raqqa, which was the de facto capital of the Islamic State extremist group's "caliphate" until its ouster in October. Also on the agenda was Rukban, a town on the Jordan-Syria border where some 50,000 displaced Syrians have been left stranded.
Deputy US ambassador Kelley Currie said it was part of Russia's "messaging campaign to try to distract from the atrocities committed by the Assad regime".
AP
Here our defence editor, Kim Sengupta, weighs in on the effectiveness of the weekend's air strikes.
The UN appears to be casting doubt on the announcement by Syria's ambassador to the body that OPCW inspectors will reach the site of the alleged Douma chemical attack today.
Reuters quoted a UN source as saying it was unlikely the team would arrive on Wednesday.
A preparatory team entered Douma on Tuesday, but not the experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the source added.
The inspectors arrived in Damascus at the weekend to examine the site of a suspected gas attack in nearby Douma which killed dozens of people and led to US-led missile strikes.
Syria's UN ambassador said on Tuesday a UN security team had gone to Douma ahead of the planned OPCW visit.
James Mattis, the US defence secretary, urged Donald Trump to seek Congress' approval for air strikes in Syria, it has been reported.
While overruled on that front, the former Marine Corps general succeeded in limiting the strikes to three targets that did not risk hitting Russian or Syrian troops, according the New York Times.
Chemical weapons inspectors had to delay visiting the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria's Douma on Wednesday after a UN security team reported gunfire at the location a day earlier, sources briefed on the team's deployment told Reuters.
Details of the shooting were unclear, but weapons inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have pushed back their visit which was supposed to happen on Wednesday, the sources said.
Bob Corker, a Republican senator, has given his verdict on the likelihood of greater US military involvement in Syria following a White House briefing to legislators.
He told CNN: "I think the administration's plans are to complete the efforts against Isis and [then] not be involved.
"[Greater involvement] is just not going to happen. To do so would take a significant effort by our military and I just don't think that's where the American people are right now."
It comes after reports that Donald Trump is attempting to persuade Arab nations they should play a greater role in the country.
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